Context: China’s President Xi Jinping may visit India in the second half of this year to attend the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) leaders’ meeting.

Details:

• China expressed its “support” for India hosting this year’s meeting, and the meet would not be impacted by the border crisis.
• Expectations are that by the second half of the year, the summit will not have to be held virtually.
• While the COVID-19 situation will determine whether that is the case, other major summits in Europe and the U.K. are likely to take place this summer, before the BRICS meet.
• In recent years, BRICS has seen greater solidarity, deeper practical cooperation, and greater influence.

BRICS:

• BRICS is the acronym coined to associate five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• Since 2009, the governments of the BRICS states have met annually at formal summits.
• Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC" (or "the BRICs") before the induction of South Africa in 2010.
• The BRICS have an estimated total population of about 656% of the world land surface and 41.53% of the world population.
• Members of G20, as of 2018, these five states had a combined nominal GDP of US$19.6 trillion, about 23.2% of the gross world product

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/xi-may-visit-india-for-brics-summit/article33908874.ece

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